PREFACE.

...by which (as I believe) they have excused themselves to the world in those very matters for which Dr. Libavius accused them, and in this way they have sufficiently satisfied the wise. The author is arguing that the Rosicrucians' own "Confessio" (Confession) serves as a better legal defense than Libavius's attacks. For they confess that it is the plan of God to exalt the humble, but to crush the proud with contempt; thus every occasion for sedition original: seditionis; inciting rebellion against authority. (if they speak openly and readily) must be taken away from them, since the mother of sedition is ambition, which pride is accustomed to feed and nourish. They also confess that they embrace a divine life, taking delight in the contemplation of God and all of naked Nature, and holding the world in contempt, since it is a valley of miseries, in which no fortune is lasting, and there is no happiness before the end. By this confession indeed (unless I am mistaken) they have cleared themselves of this crime and removed every suspicion original: imaginationem (literally "imagining") of sedition. Elsewhere in the confession we also find that they embrace Christ purely and sincerely and lead a Christian life; for which reason all suspicion of Diabolical art meaning black magic or witchcraft, a serious legal charge in the 17th century. must be removed far from them, and banished by men to the farthest shores of oblivion. For those who truly and sincerely worship Christ are able to accomplish greater things through His most holy virtue and lead them to a happy conclusion, than through the deceptive and vain illusions of the Devil—from which we conclude these brothers are entirely free; since in one part of their confession they declare themselves to be devoted to true philosophy and dedicated to Gymnosophistic Gymnosophistic: referring to the "naked philosophers" of ancient India, whom early modern thinkers admired for their asceticism and direct study of nature. wisdom; and in another, that this movement of theirs did not proceed im-